The
decision to use the Red Swedish Fence or Röda Staketet as our
emblem of Objectùm-Sexuality:

The
Pioneer

Eija-Riitta Eklöf has been living out her life in North
Sweden, the village of Liden where she was born and raised. At 54
years old, she has braved every censor of her orientation.
However, in the early days, Eija-Riitta did not face retribution for her
connection and relationship with objects. Her family and village
did not pass judgment. Why should they? She was a well
adjusted and talented model-builder who was not offending anyone and
most importantly, she was happy.

Eija-Riitta had hundreds of pen-pals all over the world and was very
open about her sexuality with little to no reprisal. She wanted to
educate people and to include a typed flyer explaining her sexuality.
So, in the early 1970’s, Eija-Riitta with two close friends, Lars and
Frank, decided on a term for the orientation to love objects, a name she
could tell people that summed up her sexuality. They chose
"Objectùm-Sexuality" and it is this Latin terminology that we still use
today and often the acronym OS.

June 17, 1979, Eija-Riitta Eklöf followed her heart and married the object of
her true desire, the Berlin Wall, unofficially adding
Berliner-Mauer to her surname.

In 1996,
Eija-Riitta started the first website dedicated to OS in 4 languages.
More or less a personal account of her own life and sexuality but also an
informative site directed at the nature of OS. It was from these
early hand-coded pages that objectùm-sexuality became known in the trenches of the
internet.

In 1999,
Eija-Riitta launched the first internet group with an extended invitation
to anyone interested in discussing objectùm-sexual issues. People poured in but it was
unclear if they were actually OS or simply curious and discussions
never developed. While this
first attempt failed to bring about an open dialog, Eija-Riitta decided
to close and reopen another in 2002 with focus directed at providing a
more private environment for discussion. Membership required
approval and from this selective process came the first active and
sincere members of the Objectùm-Sexuality Community.

The
Breakthrough

From the
founding OS members, Oliver Arndt, a talented artist from Essen started
the largest network in Germany for Objektophilie in 2002. These objektophiles have been actively
educating the public and courageously addressing the media for many
years.

Another
founding member was Erika Eiffel, a world class archer and martial
artist. She travelled extensively to
meet with Oliver and having a kinship love for the Berlin Wall also met
with her close friend, Eija-Riitta, in 2006. Later Erika set out to
meet all the OS membership in an effort to gather data and learn more
about the enigma of objectùm-sexuality. Together, Oliver
and Erika successfully adapted their German OS group for English speaking objectum-sexuals in 2004.

In
September 2006, Erika came out about her long-time affection for the
Berlin Wall and also iron Bridge structures, including the matriarch of
Bridges, the Eiffel Tower,
which she unofficially married April 8, 2007. Erika later founded Objectùm-Sexuality
Internationale and started a new international forum in February 2008
inviting the assistance of Oliver and Eija-Riitta to help to share the hope started so long ago... to know we are not alone.

The Symbolism...

The Red Fence is
cherished by Eija-Riitta as an object she holds dear to her heart.
As a tribute to her courage and devotion, Röda Staketet is to the objectùm-sexual community... our
symbol.

The Meaning...

Fences
exist throughout society. We put them up to protect ourselves but
not to shut people out. One can look over a Fence and see what’s on the
other side. If the grass is indeed greener or not… this we
decide for ourselves.